Hi Anna,

As far as I am aware the restore procedure is the same for 2003 as it is in windows 2000. To do a Non-Authoritative restore you still need to go into Active Directory Restore mode what ever happens. It is in this mode where you make it an Authoritative or Non-Authoritative restore. If you were to do a Authoritative restore you still do the same again but then you have to use the ntdsutil commands to say it is the Atuhortative server before you reboot after doing the restore.

You may find this link useful:
http://www.cwol.com/firewire/firewire-vs-usb.htm
Page 115 is where it starts talking about it.

Hope this helps.

Craig

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the reply. Most likely, the restore would be non-authoritative, as the BDCs would have a more recent replica of the AD. The Veritas documentation for proper restoration is definitely lacking. The link you provided is not a document. Can you please post the correct link you were referencing? Thanks.

Hi Anna Maria,


Please let us know if the earlier post has helped you in resolving the issue.


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No, my question has not been fully answered.

I am looking for Veritas documentation that references how to perform a non-authoritative restore of a Windows Server 2003 Domain Controller with Active Directory. I was only able to find some brief instructions for Windows 2000 Server. Thanks.

Hi Anna,

I am really sorry about putting the wrong link there.

http://download.netiq.com/library/ebooks/ad/chapte...

That is now the correct link and is page 115 in the document but in Adboe Reader it will be 17 of 24.

Yes it does sound like you will be doing a non-authoritative one if you have another DC in the domain. In that case, just do a fresh build. Then go into AD restore mode and restore the system state and hopefully everything will work ok and after the reboot it will then get overwritten by the newer AD from the other DC.

I hope this helps.

Craig

Thanks for the link, Craig. The information is helpful, but...

Management wants to see the Vertias documentation for doing this type of restore, though. Any Veritas employees care to comment? The lack of correct instructions for businesses that depend on this backup software to be able to restore critical servers is unacceptable.

Hi Anna,

If you're interested in showing management anything, nothing beats your own documentation.

Do a test restore on a spare machine.

Document what you do. Show it to management.

Then when you have a failure, you dont' get to tell them that you were following the document supplied by Veritas, but it was wrong, doesn't work, and now you've got issues. Trust yourself more.

Unfortunately, we do not have spare servers to be able to test these types of restores to show management that we can do it. My managers are not interested in "my" version of the proper way to restore critical servers. They want the software vendor's recommended solution, in this case, the Veritas instructions. I am preparing disaster recovery steps currently, but at this point its a culmination of information I found while Googling disaster recovery. Does someone have the Veritas instructions for restoring a Windows Server 2003 Primary Domain Controller?

Our primary DNS/DHCP/WINS server's HDD just crashed one night and the restore we performed did not bring the server back up correctly and we had to call MSFT and spend big bucks for the support call; four hours later, the MSFT tech was able to walk us through reinstalling the DHCP and DNS portion and importing all of the information manually. The server was down for an entire day and a lot of work time was lost.

Please, any help is appreciated.

Hello,


Kindly refer the Page no 610 in the administartors guide..

Kindly refer the following Link to download the Administartors guide..

Symantec Backup Exec (tm) 10d for Windows Servers Administrator's Guide (English)

http://support.veritas.com/docs/279401




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and would be moved to answered questions pool.

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We are using BackupExec 9.1 so the admin guide for 10d is not going to help me.

Hi Anna,

This is the scenario you are likely to find yourself in, assuming you ever find what you seek:

- You show management a perfect document from Veritas
- Your server goes down again
- You follow the instructions, only to find them incorrect, or missing something due to a specific of your network which was not considered by Veritas.
- You experience the same problem again.

Surely you have a deprecated PC lying around no longer in use.

If your management are that deadset about you following "official" documentation they will be banging their heads on the wall for quite some time, as I suspect will you, given I doubt a Veritas tech will give you a better response than you've already received.

Anna,

Even though that document is referring to Version 10d the principal is the same for version 9.1/9.0. I have checked 9.1 and 10d to make sure the same options exist and they do. Did you happen to buy the media kit when you bought your software? The guide should be on there for 9.1 or the other option when you installed backup exec did you leave the online documentation option selected to install? If you left it with the default install options you can view the Admin guide for 9.1 from the help menu. Page 565 is where it talks about restoring a Domain controller or this is the same section the veritas tech has pointed you to in 10d document. If it�s not installed you can install it after. If you still got problems I am sure I could figure out a way of transferring it to you.

Craig

Hello,

Please update us on this issue.

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The process for doing a non-authoritative restore depends on the status of the server you are restoring. In the event of a total crash, follow the steps of http://support.veritas.com/docs/236286 noting that when you install the OS, you leave it in a workgroup (no active directory). By leaving the server in a workgroup, you eliminate the need to restore in directory services restore mode. Only in the event you are restoring a functional DC do you need to use DSRM. Remember that when you restore to a newly created workgroup server, you will likely need to set resource credentials on the restore job with the local admin account you just rebuilt the server with.

Russ